In the human resource
world, all executives who interview you expect to hire the best and the
brightest. In getting the crème de la crème, they use different
methods in achieving the results. Most of them use behavioral analysis when
interviewing and any careful HR executive will process all the information
required to hire a candidate only in one sitting. Today, I want to take you
through the mind of an interviewer; this article will give you insight into the
various philosophies and approaches used by interviewers.
1. To build a great organization, HR guys believe you need to hire
people that are smarter than you in
particular areas. They treat each
interview as a conversation. When interviewing candidates for senior-level
openings they try to find out who somebody really is and how their heads work.
Initiative, intellectual curiosity, personal authenticity, and reason.
2. Others looks at where someone
wants to go in his or her career but
also look at where he or she has been, not just in terms of recent jobs and
education but in terms of life lessons. It is incredible how many smart people
with excellent credentials are really clueless about what it might take to get
people to work together. Considering that later in their career they will be
responsible for managing hundreds or thousands of people, this becomes a
significant issue. Personality, and the perception that a person could work
well with others, no matter what their economic lot in life, counts for a lot.
Any sign of elitism is the kiss of death.
3. Just imagine a question in an interview like, 'What's the best
practical joke you've pulled off, and why?' In that question an interviewer is
looking for a sense of creativity, a
willingness to have fun, and at a deeper level
an ease with others that's made evident by a willingness to joke around and
take some risks. Moreover, the question breaks down some of the seriousness and
tension in the interviewing room. Interviewers also want to get a few good
ideas of practical joke endeavors.
4. Some want to find out if this is the person who really made things happen in
his or her prior positions. Sorting the doers from the posers might be the
hardest task of interviewing. Interviewers will always ask why the candidates
want the position not because there is a right answer, but because they want to
hire a person who will probably stay for awhile and to know if the candidate is
capable of making purposeful decisions.
5. Others like to ask interviewees to talk about their history and
about how they got to where they are, what they want to do now, and what they
aspire to in the future. In the course of the interview, interviewers listen
for the major decisions they've made and ask them to help them understand how
they made those decisions.
6. Other interviewers enjoy what they call the 'little sister' test
for candidates with brilliant backgrounds like MBAs or PhDs. Here, they select
one of the most specialized items on their CV for example, their thesis and ask
them to explain what it is as if they were their 6-year-old sister. This is a
great way to test their ability to explain, synthetically and simply, very
complex things. This skill is key in many businesses.
7. The underlying philosophy is that HR selects employees one by one. Most employers know that without the best people, they cannot
be the best. Once interviewers establish that a candidate has the necessary
skills, it becomes a matter of assessing interest and fit. The focus is on
having candidates see a wide variety of interviewers. This approach provides
both the candidate and firms with a diverse set of perspectives upon which to
base a decision. Most important, this philosophy enables a candidate to get a
great deal of insight into the culture and determine whether there is an
appropriate fit.
8. Most HR people use behavioral
- based interviewing most
of the time, what they don’t know is that many applicants come in with too many
prepared answers, and sound like politicians; no matter what question you ask
them, they are going to give you a prepared answer. To get more to the core of
an individual, the question should be, "What motivates you to be as
successful as you are?" and follow it immediately by another question,
"Can you walk me through how you set your goals?" These questions get
to more of the essence of the individual.
Now that you know how
most interviewers think and the approach they use, you need to put yourself in
their shoes and take the bull by the horns. I expect you to get to their mind
and pass an interview with ease.
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